Lake Titicaca
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After crossing the border into Peru we drove along Lake Titicaca (the world’s highest navigable lake at 12,421 ft) until we reached the city of Puno. According to our buddy, Wikipedia:“Puno is a city in southeastern Peru, located on the shore of Lake Titicaca. It is also the capital and largest city of the Puno Region. The city was established in 1668 by viceroy, Pedro Antonio Fernández de Castro. The city boasts several churches dating back from the colonial period where they were built to service the Spanish population and evangelize the natives. Today, Puno is an important agricultural and livestock region; particularly of South American camelids (llamas a
nd alpacas) which graze on its immense plateaus and plains. Many homes in Puno, much like surrounding cities, are half-finished. This is done so that the inhabitants do not have to pay taxes. Much of the city economy relies on the black market, fueled by cheap goods smuggled in from Bolivia. Puno has been designated to become a Special Economic Zone or "Zona Económica" by Peru's president, Alan Garcia. "We rested in Puno for the night, too tired to tour around. Although we didn’t spend much time there, the drive there was fascinating. We got up early the next morning and left on a nine hour bus ride to Cusco, visiting a number of Incan ruins and colonial sites along the way. Although the guide was “English” speaking we determined that it was actually easier to understand his Spanish than his English. So much for the fluent English speaking tour guide promoted in the ad. Nonetheless, the tour was interesting and it was a good introduction to the area.
Machu Picchu
We got to Cusco in the early evening, had an early dinner and woke up really early the next morning to start our condensed three day trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Usually, it takes four days so we were really booking. Fortunately, though, our week in Bolivia helped us to acclimatize and also just get into shape for the long hike ahead of us.
I had heard so many things about Machu Picchu but never much about the trails to get there. The Inca Trail (one of many among a larger network of trails in the Incan empire that spanned from modern day Colombia all the way down to Chile and Argentina) was spectacular. Although difficult at times, the sheer beauty of the trail was worth any painful experiences along the way. But more than that was the mystical quality of the mountains. It’s hard to put this one into words. If you were really silent with your thoughts, you could feel an energy in the area, almost like the mountains were alive and speaking to you. I’d have this feeling for the rest of my three week tour Machu Picchu, Cusco and the Sacred Valley.
By the time we got to Machu Picchu, I had already fallen in love by the area, and the mere site of “The Lost City” was breathtaking. As we approached it, many of us were in complete silence. The site spoke to me like no other site I had seen. Of all the places I visited on my six month trip (both before and after this day), Machu Picchu was the most awe inspiring.
It‘s been said that there are certain places on the earth (vortexes) that are considered special or sacred because of their location. In fact the combination of various elements in nature such as the relationship between earth, air and water are those considered to have special powers. Machu Picchu is said to be one of those sacred places because of its location within concentric circles of mountains, the river circling the base of the mountain, the huge quantities of quartz crystal found there and the fact that it was constructed in complete harmony with the physical and cyclical aspects of nature. When you see it and observe how it's constructed into the mountains, you’ll recognize something otherworldly about it.
Fortunately for us, we planned our tour so that we’d be able to visit Machu Picchu over two days. The second day most of us got up at the crack of dawn, had breakfast and worked our way to the buses in Agua Caliente which departed every 20 minutes to head up the mountain to Machu Picchu. I ended up spending two hours of quiet time in the outer edges of Machu Picchu overlooking the majestic landscape.
For those history buffs, here’s a little bit more about Machu Picchu from our neighbor, Wikipedia:
"Machu Picchu was constructed around 1450, at the height of the Inca Empire. It was abandoned less than 100 years later. It is likely that most of its inhabitants were wiped out by smallpox before the Spanish conquistadores arrived. Hiram Bingham, the credited discoverer of the site, along with several others, originally hypothesized that the citadel was the traditional birthplace of the Inca people or the spiritual center of the "Virgins o
f the Suns".
Another theory maintains that Machu Picchu was an Inca "llacta": a settlement built to control the economy of the conquered regions. It may also have been built as a prison for a select few who had commited heinous crimes against Inca society. Research conducted by scholars, such as John Rowe and Richard Burger, has convinced most archaeologists that rather than a defensive retreat, Machu Picchu was an estate of the Inca emperor, Pachacuti. In addition, Johan Reinhard presented evidence that the site was selected based on its position relative to sacred landscape features. One such example is its mountains, which are purported to be in alignment with key astronomical events.
Machu Picchu was designated as a World Heritage Site in 1983 when it was described as "an absolute masterpiece of architecture and a unique testimony to the Inca civilization". On July 7, 2007, Machu Picchu was voted as one of New Open World Corporation's New Seven Wonders of the World.
Most of the construction in Machu Picchu uses the classic Inca architectural style of polished dry-stone walls of regular sha
pe. The Incas were masters of this technique, called ashlar, in which blocks of stone are cut to fit together tightly without mortar. The Incas were among the best stone masons the world has seen, and many junctions in the central city are so perfect that not even a knife fits between the stones."Other Inca buildings have been built using mortar, but by Inca standards that was quick, shoddy construction. Peru is a highly seismic land, and mortar-free construction was more earthquake-resistant than using mortar. Inca walls show numerous subtle design details that would prevent them from collapsing in an earthquake. Doors and windows are trapezoidal and tilt inward from bottom to top, corners are usually rounded, inside corners often incline slightly into the rooms, and "L" shaped blocks are often used to tie outsi
de corners together. Walls do not rise straight from top to bottom but are offset slightly from row to row. As a result, Machu Picchu is a city that has stood up well to earthquakes over the years.Late that day I ended up climbing to the top of Wayna Picchu, which is the small mountain located behind Machu Picchu. It’s in all the famous pictures you see of Machu Picchu. Although it looks unbelievably steep, the climb is really not that technical (most of the way) until arriving to the final section of steep stairs. Towards the top, it's of those places where people end up using their butt to climbe down the stairs. Although steep at the top, it was completely worth it since there was a beautiful view of the valley and of Machu Picchu.
Cusco
Once we got back to Cusco, everyone in the group returned back home to the states. Instead of visiting more places in Peru, I decided to stay in the city of Cusco for a couple more weeks. I ended up meeting a number of people (both locals and travelers) and kept busy teaching English at a local non-profit with my friend Abel, practicing my Spanish with a couple friends I had made at a hostel called Casa de La Gringa, and started playing in a couple bands at a local club.So how did I get myself into a band? Or two? Well…one night I was watching a guitarist and bassist play at a
local club, and they had a set of bongos sitting next to them. I asked them if they had a percussionist coming, and they told me that he was out sick for the night. I told them I could sit in if they’d like, they invited me up to play with them, and I played in their band for the next two weeks. A day later another band allowed me t
o sit in on their gigs as well until I was playing about four nights a week. Crazy stuff. I usually played at a little dive bar called Kilometer 0, which is the picture to the right. The enthusiastic class I taught is in the picture above.Aside from teaching and playing music I did manage to visit some of the ancient sites around Cusco. One interesting site, in particular, is called Saqsaywaman, which is pretty much pronounced 'sexy woman.' The name in Q
uechua, the native language of the Incas, means 'Satisfied Falcon.' Saqsaywaman is made up of a series of walls that were formed in a zigzagged shape. One of the original emperors of the Incan civilization envisioned Cusco in the shape of a Puma with Saqsaywaman being the head, and the walls specifically serving as the teeth of the Puma. The structure is built in such a way that a single piece of paper will not fit between many of the stones. Pretty amazing stuff. This precision as well as their strategic placement on top of each other is thought to have helped the ruins survive massive earthquakes in Cusco over the centuries.After marveling at the ruins for a couple hours, I headed back to the main square in Cusco. On my way down, I walked by a dog that was starting to growl at me. Not paying much attention I walked past it. After walking twenty more feet down the hill, I started to hear a number of dogs behind me and I turned around. There were five dogs standing together with the original dog (let's call him Sparky), and they were all growling and barking. I thought that this couldn't be a good situation, and I started backing up slowly. In that moment Sparky started to run towards me, and the other dogs followed. Every part of my body screamed...."RUN!!" However, I knew that I'd be overtaken and attacked if I turned my back. Instead I grabbed my water bottle tightly and what seemed like total insanity at the time, I started rushing towards the dogs and yelling at them. Fortunately for me, the other dogs were more afraid than I was, and they ran away. Sparky, though, must have had a pretty bad at the office since he stayed there for another 15 minutes barking, growling, salivating. It was a nice little showdown between the two of us. Finally, Sparky worked his way back to his home, and I wobbled back down the hill. Lesson from this story? Always carry a big stick, or a bad-ass looking water bottle when you're walking around the outskirts of Cusco. And don't take any crap from any dogs. :) From that day on I carried a water bottle everwhere.
And aside from the Sparky showdown I really did fall in love with Cusco. I ended up spending a total of three weeks in the Andes, met a ton of great people, and promised myself that I would go back there before heading home again. Here's some photos of a few more great people I met along the way. My friends Carly on the left and Abel and his brother on the right.
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